The politics of terrorism
by TheRealAbbey
Summary: Lucas is sent on an assignment and faces an unexpected turn of events


Disclaimer: Seaquest is not mine and neither are the characters. (Surprised gasps of shock). This story is not for any profit or any thing like that..  
  
This story is very corny. But if your bored, it might pass a bit of time. Yes I'm aware that I skip tense and can't spell, and my teacher has already pointed out to me that I can't write sentences...But I really appreciated the comments to my last story. I don't get cut very easily and I don't even mind comments such as 'that sucked' so long as there are reasons why. Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.  
  
The hatch to the shuttle opened, allowing the worlds youngest navel officer to stick his head out of the door and breath a sigh of apathy. This assignment was going to be incredibly dull, probably the most boring thing Captain Hudson had asked him to do since he'd signed on. The job of the eighteen-year-old Ensign was to re-download the program of a primitive control station that had been wiped out by some mistake that he wasn't entirely clear on. The job was simple, an amateur could have done it. Lucas Wolenczak was a computer genius. This would be tediously boring, and it would take days. As Lucas walked down the hall he passed a familiar face. For a moment, Lucas could have sworn that he looked like Lawrence Deon. Lucas stopped short. 'What would Deon be doing in a facility like this ?'. Lucas did a double take and decided that he was mistaken. The monotony was beginning to get to him already.  
  
"Excuse me?" a tallish man in a blue over suit approached the teenager, "This is a restricted facility...." his sentence faltered as he noticed the young man's uniform. Lucas took over, "Uh, Yea I'm Ensign Wolenczak, I'm here to over see the programming of that system that crashed on Tuesday."  
  
The man looked at him warily. "Do you have any ID?" he asked almost mockingly. Lucas showed him his ID and the man studied it carefully. Finally he gave it back to the teenager.  
  
"Of course, I'm Fred Binice. I'll take you to where you'll be staying. This way please."  
  
Lucas obeyed and was led to a small room with a bed and a table.  
  
"This is where you'll be sleeping. I'm not sure of any thing else regarding your stay, Professor Vento will be in charge of that. Just make yourself comfortable and I'll notify him of your arrival."  
  
The man left leaving Lucas standing in the room holding his duffel bag. That was strange the way the man had greeted him. He had treated Lucas as if he were staying at a hotel. The boy smiled to himself, maybe this wasn't going to be so boring after all..  
  
Two days later Lucas was asking himself why he ever thought there would be anything interesting about this facility. Professor Venton had been genuinely pleasant but had not really provided any interesting conversation. The other workers in the facility had not been so accommodating. In fact, they had just stared at him and whispered things behind his back. It had made Lucas feel uncomfortably self-conscious and he kept wondering if maybe he had something stuck in his teeth. Lucas wasn't used to this kind of treatment. At high school and college he had never been picked on by the bullies, even the nerds never noticed him. It was just like at home with his father. He had always been like a ghost, and he longed to be picked on. Now he wished he would be a ghost again.  
  
A group of young women, probably in their mid-20s who had been having, what Lucas thought to be, a discussion about him in the corner for the past few days had begun to draw straws. Eventually, one of them came over to him.  
  
"Excuse me," a pretty lady with blondish hair asked, "How old are you?" Lucas looked uncomfortably over at the group from where she came. They were looking at him in anticipation but were trying not to show it. Lucas was used to this, but it didn't make him feel any better about it.  
  
"Uh," Lucas decided to cut a long story short, it was classified anyway. " I'm eighteen."  
  
"Yea, I thought you were around there, how come you're so young? I mean, you're UEO aren't you?"  
  
Lucas was about to reply when the fire alarm went off. Every one looked around in confusion. No one could see any smoke and the alarms were only supposed too go off if the fire wasn't able to controlled.  
  
"I'll go see what's wrong." Lucas jumped at the opportunity to leave. Lucas, almost relieved that something interesting was happening, dashed into the next room to crawl into the vent in the ceiling. 'Someone probably just knocked something' he thought. Just as he'd closed to vent behind him and begun to crawl through the roof, gunshots and screaming blasted from the room he'd just left. Lucas froze, a sickening feeling twisting it's way through his stomach. As the gun fire ceased, as did the screaming. Lucas breathed slowly in and out try to control his heart rate and his body, and became half-consciously aware that there were tears coming down his cheeks from the shock. He wiped them away, embarrassed in spite of himself. The sickening feeling had not gone away and it was becoming increasingly worse at the growing silence that filled the next room. Lucas moved his way carefully and slowly towards the vent that was above the next room. His body went numb when he saw through the cracks in the vent that everyone in the room lay covered in blood. Some had their eyes open, some closed, but Lucas was pretty sure they were all dead. He found himself desperately wishing for the safe boredom that he had been suffering earlier, and an incredible guilt for wishing that something would happen. Lucas snapped to attention as he heard a noise. A group of men armed with ammunition filed into the room. A tall, well built man surveyed the room while the others moved around to check for any signs of life. Lucas' mouth dropped open in horror. This time there was no mistake, the man was definitely Mason Freeman.  
  
'Oh damn' Lucas thought 'I have to contact SeaQuest'.  
  
Ford had the bridge and was frustratingly sifting through the load of paper work he knew he had to get to after he had finished his shift.  
  
"Sir," O'Neill called out to him from the communications table, "Lucas is on line four, he says the facility has been high jacked."  
  
Ford's eyebrows shot up. "What? Put him through." Ford moved over and put on a headset. "Lucas, what's going on?".  
  
A shaky but calm voice at the other end answered. "Uh, I don't know...these group of men came into the facility and shot a whole lot of people, one of them was Freeman." "Are you all right?" Ford asked concerned.  
  
"Yeah, I think. I was in the vent in the ceiling when it happened. I was able to crawl through into one of these rooms and make this call."  
  
"Are there any other survivors?"  
  
Lucas felt ill at the question, "Not that I know of, sir. I thought I saw Deon in the hall two days ago when I got here. I should have done something, maybe this wouldn't have happened."  
  
Ford frowned and his voice became reassuring. "No you shouldn't have Lucas, not unless you were absolutely sure. This is not your fault don't blame yourself. Right now you need to concentrate on making sure that you don't get caught."  
  
Lucas appreciated the reassurance but he felt guilty anyway. "Yes, sir."  
  
Ford looked up from the consol. "Okay, we've got trouble. Get the Captain up here." He turned his attention back to Lucas. "Lucas, stay down, okay, we don't want them to find you, they'll know by your uniform that you're UEO."  
  
"Yes, sir." Ford switched of the com and exchanged a worried look with O'Neill.  
  
Back at the facility Lucas replaced the communication equipment and began looking for a place to hide. In his haste he pulled open the door and came face to face with one of the gun man. Before he had a chance to react, the man shot him in the abdomen with a stun. Lucas cried out and held his stomach before losing consciousness and falling to the ground.  
  
Back on Seaquest Hudson has spoken to Admiral Noyce. He addressed the bridge who were waiting keenly for any news. "We haven't had any notification apart from Ensign Wolenczak's call that the facility has been sabotaged. Therefore, as the offending party has not contacted us, we can conclude that this was meant to be an undercover mission. As we don't know what is going on, we are not going to rush in and intervene before we have any more information. A small team is preparing to move in, check the place out and report on the level of danger. Until we have that information we aren't going to make anymore moves."  
  
"Sir," Ford spoke up. "What is it that we should be doing?"  
  
"I would like you to lead the team, Mr. Ford, the rest of you can continue with your normal duty until otherwise told." Hudson turned to leave but Henderson stopped him.  
  
"But we have a crew member in there, sir. He could be in a lot of danger." Hudson turned and gave her his usual worn out look.  
  
"It's likely that he is in a lot of danger, Lieutenant, but there's nothing I can do. I've informed you of the situation. Carry on."  
  
"But Sir..."  
  
" I said carry on, Lieutenant." Hudson stated firmly and turned, leaving the bridge. The rest of the crew looked at each other helplessly and frustrated.  
  
"Lucas'll be fine," Tony Piccolo assured her after just entering the bridge to start his shift. "He's a smart kid."  
  
Henderson nodded unsurely.  
  
Lucas woke up and found he was strapped to a chair. He began to twist, trying to get free of his bonds and immediately took a sharp breath in at the pain in his abdomen. Freeman stopped pacing beside him.  
  
"Oh good, you're awake." Lucas recovered and looked up glaring at him. He then noticed that a number of the gunman were also in the room, leaning up against the walls in the shadows and staring at him.  
  
"Did you call somebody, boy?" Freeman spoke to him referring to the communications equipment that Lucas had used to contact Seaquest. Lucas only looked at the floor moving his lips, unsure of what to say. Freeman he rolled his eyes, dragged over a chair and sat on it. "Listen, your going to tell us who you called." Lucas gave a half smile, "Your kidding right?" Freeman's face clouded in anger and Lucas stiffened. Freeman rose and whispered to one of his colleges. The men nodded and motioned to about four other men in the room. They all moved out together.  
  
"Listen, ensign - yes I know who you are - whoever you notified, I'm assuming that it was the UEO, will not be able to do anything this time. We'll be out of here before they arrive and you are the only witness." Freeman smiled, taking a batten from one of the soldiers, "This innocent little facility is supposed to be used as business centre for the banks of the local colonies. Unfortunately for the staff here, that nut, Venton decided that he would take it upon himself to systematically withdraw profits from Deon International. I assume that's why someone as experienced as you was contacted to fix the glitch instead of a lay person, they must have expected you to find something in the computers that would stop what they were doing. They obviously didn't expect us to use this method." Deon smiled at Lucas, "You know it's perfectly okay that I tell you this because what they were doing is completely illegal, the UEO has no grounds to intervene. Besides, it would be very bad strategically fir them to waste their firepower and personell forces on a group of dead civilians and one teenage boy."  
  
"You still didn't have the right to kill all those people." Lucas was furious that Freeman was attempting to justify the massacre.  
  
It's such as a small breach of the moral code, Wolenczak. Your just a child, you have no idea about the big picture do you?"  
  
"How the hell can the big picture mean anything when you take it upon yourselves to annihilate human lives in the name of getting rid small competition."  
  
Freeman ignored him, and held up the batten he was holding, "Do you know what this is?" Freeman showed Lucas the end of the batten and Lucas noticed that it had two metal prongs at the end. A blue light flashed from them as Freeman initiated the electricity. Lucas nervously wet his lips. Freeman motioned to the men in the corner and they moved forward and unbound Lucas from the chair. He gasped, clenching his teeth as the lifted him up. Freeman smiled.  
  
"Okay, listen kid. Now I think you should make it easy on yourself, your fellow crew and us and give your CO a call and tell them that you just made a mistake. Tell them that Deon is not involved in this at all."  
  
"You know I can't do that, besides what's the point?" Lucas said softly.  
  
"Like I said, this is only a minor situation, it has very little to do with the Cold War. Now save your fellow crew their time and fire power and make the call." Freeman ordered."  
  
Lucas said nothing.  
  
"Look, kid an interrogation was not of the work requirements today but if you insist, we really don't mind."  
  
Lucas writhed from the grasp of the two men who held him, but they held him tightly. "Still sore from the stun?" Freeman asked motioning to Lucas' abdomen. Lucas didn't answer. Freeman suddenly plunged the batten into the boy's abdomen and initiated the tazer. Lucas let out a loud cry of shock and pain. As Freeman pulled it away, Lucas struggled to kept his footing, nearly collapsing in the mens' grasp.  
  
"Say you'll make the call." Freeman ordered. At the silence, the method was repeated, this time to Lucas' side, near his pancreas. Lucas cried out louder.  
  
The man who met Lucas earlier, Mr. Binice, stood further down the hall working at the main computer generator in the wall. Lucas' screaming could be heard clearly and Binice was becoming increasingly uncomfortably. He called over one of the gunman. "What's going on in there?"  
  
The gunman smiled, "Just a bit of adolescent angst. The little brat is causing us trouble."  
  
Binice obviously didn't approve. "You never said any thing about torturing teenagers." The guard looked irritated. Lucas continues to cry out from down the hall. "You've been offered a better employment deal, Binice, now do you wish to work or ask questions?"  
  
Benice took the hint and shut up.  
  
The interrogation was interrupted by Freemans com-link. He motioned for the men to drop Lucas and the boy fell to the floor, perspiration dampening his hair. Freeman answered his com and spoke for a few moments. He addressed the men: "We can leave now."  
  
"What about the boy?" one asked. Freeman saw that Lucas had fallen unconscious. "Take him with you, he might come in handy."  
  
The men leave the room, one them holding Lucas in a fireman's carry.  
  
Unbeknownst to Freeman and his men the Seaquest team that was organised to check out the facility, had moved faster than they anticipated. The Seaquest team intercepted Freeman's just as they were attempting to take the last shuttle. As they tried to apprehend them, one of them came out holding a dishevelled looking Lucas. A hidden seaquest member attacked the soldier, freeing Lucas momentarily until the boy was recaptured by another soldier. The Seaquest crew's focus on the hostage allowed the rest of the soldiers to escape, including Freeman. Lucas, who had some what recovered from the torture session earlier, struggled to free himself. The soldier reacted by shoving the infamous tazer into the same place where Lucas had been shocked so many times before. His cry of agony forged a new strength into the infuriated crew members and the soldier was shot dead. Ford rushed over to where Lucas was slumped onto the ground, and put his arms around the youngster's shoulders, steadying him. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked brushing Lucas hair out of his face. "Yeah." Lucas replied weakly. Ford ordered a med-team to stand by on the Seaquest. As the Commander lifted him, Lucas let out a protesting cry. Ford lifted his shirt.  
  
" Let me see...." his voice trailed off as he noticed various marks on the teenager's body. Fury encased him at the thought of where they would have come from.  
  
"I'm sorry." Lucas whispered.  
  
"No, it's not your fault, Lucas. It'll be okay." Ford helped Lucas back to the shuttle which headed back to the Seaquest.  
  
Three days later Lucas was recovering in med-bay. Freeman was right, the UEO had nothing on Deon. The crew were frustrated at the thought of Deon literally getting away with murder, but there was nothing they could do, except wait until evil Lawrence Deon struck again 


End file.
